Supporting Grief in Farming and Beyond: A Personal Reflection

As featured in Farmers Weekly, Workplace Bereavement founder Jacqueline Gunn shares a powerful reflection on how grief touches farming families, rural communities, and workplaces alike.

A proud sponsor of Britain’s Fittest Farmer, Jacqueline uses her platform to highlight how fitness, grief support, and resilience intersect — particularly in isolated industries like agriculture. Following the sudden death of her father, a lifelong farmer, she was inspired to launch Workplace Bereavement to fill the critical gap in grief support for employees.

Through training advocates in schools, businesses, and farms, the organisation equips people to offer compassionate, culturally aware support in the wake of loss. Sometimes that means an internal advocate who knows the environment, and sometimes it’s an external listener who brings a fresh perspective and confidentiality.

This autumn, Jacqueline is launching Riderfit — a unique wellbeing initiative combining circuit training, mechanical horse sessions, and farm-to-fork nutrition. Based at Millbrook Horizons in East Yorkshire, the programme also supports bereaved families and young people struggling with trauma or attachment issues through animal-assisted therapy and alternative outdoor education.

Workplace Bereavement is also expanding internationally, with operations now launched in the US and South Africa — proving that grief support knows no borders.

At the heart of it all is a simple truth: grief doesn’t disappear, but with the right support, people can live alongside it — and even thrive. As Jacqueline puts it, “It’s not the grief that changes. It’s us.”